Ida B. Wells
1862-1931

Ida B. Wells crusaded against lynchings in Memphis and the South. In 1892 while editor of the Memphis Free Speech, located in this vicinity, she wrote of the lynching of three Black businessmen. As a result, her newspaper office was destroyed and her life threatened.
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After moving to New York, she began an international speaking tour where she influenced the establishment of the British Anti-Lynching Society. She cofounded the NAACP in America and organized the first Black women's political organization. A Chicago housing project is named in her honor.